Thursday, February 14, 2013

Ruthie On The Road, Update

-ALL PHOTOS BY RUTH RADER-

I left the dusty little city of Winnemucca, Nevada and returned to Oregon...after transferring three times to another Greyhound bus. I knew that I had to get to the bottom line of what was going on
in my left eye.

A couple of nasty floaters had appeared in my left eye and I became concerned about my vision. My insurance is tied to Oregon and so back to that State, I went.

I went to the hospital in Ashland, Oregon and then I was sent to a specialty doctor over in Medford.

He examined my eye and asked me to return to his office in a week.

Everything in his office is state-of-the-art. The photo (above) shows different angles of the
inside of my eye.

I stayed in various winter warming shelters around the area, after that...with the exception of one night where I bunked at a motel in little Phoenix, Oregon. I got to stay there because I met a homeless woman who sleeps in her minivan, most of the time.

On one particularly cold night, she decided to stay at the warming shelter in Ashland. The next day she and I went to get coffee and decided to put me in a motel room for the day and overnight. I was pretty tired by that time so the rest and the bathtub were a real blessing.

The next day, I took a few local buses up to the small city of Central Point, Oregon. I was heading north and that community was as far as local buses would carry me. I hitchhiked from there to a rest area. But before I did, I was first picked up by a guy in Central Point.

He drove me up to Grants Pass and then dropped me off. He gave me his business card and asked me to contact him if I ran into trouble.

I got two rides from there to the rest area. But I didn't get any rides after that.

The sun set and I returned to a picnic table at the rest area. Then I took out the card that the
guy from Central Point had given to me. I called him up.

A few friends of his drove out, picked me up and brought me back to the man's house in Central Point. I stayed at the house for several days.

I liked him. I liked his dog. I liked the futon, his huge flatscreen TV and the hot shower.

But his live-in girlfriend didn't like me.

She acted one way when her "man" was around and quite another way whenever he was gone.

I got finally got fed up and left. I stayed at a warming shelter in Central Point, that night, instead.

The next day, I went back to the eye doctor. In order for him to check my eyes, the second time, he dilated my pupils WAYYY out and also numbed my eyeballs. After the nurse administered all of the drops, my eyes began to look like Igor's bug eyes in the movie, "Young Frankenstein."

When the exam was over, it was obvious that I wouldn't be able to manage on my own for awhile. So the nurses pooled their resources and got me a room in the hospital's "medical motel." Then one of the nurses walked me over to it.

That place is something else!

First of all, it's beautiful!
Artwork covers the walls, flowers and plants adorn every nook-and-cranny in the place and the "common area" includes a real, gas fireplace.

There is a large, fully-stocked kitchen and even a soda machine!

My room included a TV with full cable, a private bathroom and and a soft, cozy, over-stuffed LazyBoy rocker.

The entire building is a wi-fi hotspot, there is a free laundry facility and a free long-distance, landline phone in the private quarters.

My eyes re-adjusted in that wonderful environment.

The next day (yesterday) I headed back up, on the local buses, to the same ramp that I had stood by,
before, in Central Point, Oregon.

My most interesting driver was a young man who told me that he is a landscape architect. He drove me to the small town of Sutherlin.

But I was only there for awhile. Because, eventually, a lady who works there contacted her husband. And they drove me over to where I am, tonight: Roseburg, Oregon.

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Ruthie Rader

This blog represents 13 years of my life. This profile helps Google (which I have been connected to since 2004) introduce me to the world. I am 62 and I am still hitchhiking around the United States. I have traveled throughout Alaska, Canada and every State in the Continental U.S. I can also be found on Facebook and YouTube. I like music, photography, political voodoo, controversial issues, travel, caffeine and cheese...but not necessarily in that order.